– Pope Francis, the first Latin American leader of the Roman Catholic Church, has died, the Vatican said on Monday, ending an often turbulent reign marked by division and tension as he sought to overhaul the hidebound institution.
He was 88, and had suffered a serious bout of double pneumonia this year, but his death came as a shock after he had been driven around St. Peter’s Square in an open-air popemobile to greet cheering crowds on Easter Sunday.
“Dear brothers and sisters, it is with profound sadness I must announce the death of our Holy Father Francis,” Cardinal Kevin Farrell announced on the Vatican’s TV channel.
“At 7:35 (0535 GMT) this morning the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the house of the Father.”
On Sunday, Francis had made his first prolonged public appearance since being discharged on March 23 from a 38-day hospital stay for pneumonia.
In an Easter Sunday message read aloud by an aide as the pope looked on from the main balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, the pontiff had reiterated his call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
At the Vatican, tourists and pilgrims visiting for Easter expressed their shock and grief.
The pope had also held a brief meeting on Sunday with visiting U.S. Vice-President JD Vance.
“My heart goes out to the millions of Christians all over the world who loved him,” Vance said on X.
Other world leaders were reacting to the pope’s death with praise for his efforts to reform the worldwide church and offering condolences to the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni mourned the departure of “a great man, a great shepherd”.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said: “He inspired millions, far beyond the Catholic Church, with his humility and love so pure for the less fortunate.”
Jose Ramos-Horta, the president of East Timor, where Francis visited in September 2024 as part of the longest foreign trip of his papacy, said the pope “leaves behind a profound legacy of humanity, of justice, of human fraternity”.
